SEO is an important topic to emphasize when it comes to your website. One of the most important factors in the SEO process and in the optimization of any website is internal links. Internal links are no less important than content and are essential to the success of the SEO process. They help the bot crawl the site and improve the user experience for visitors. Most companies focus on inbound links and tend to ignore internal links. The lack of internal links harms search engines’ ability to crawl and rank your pages. Think of internal links as instructions to the user on how to navigate searching for products or information. In fact, internal links improve the user experience by enabling faster and friendlier navigation.
Why should you also focus on internal links when it comes to SEO?
Internal links are important for establishing the site’s information architecture and passing juice (link equity, power, or whatever you want to call it). The bot (of search engines, not just Google) first analyzes your site’s homepage and continues to other pages via links. The algorithm analyzes the relationship between the pages, posts, and content on your site’s pages, checking if they are on the same topic and if there is indeed a contextual match. Therefore, internal links enable Google bots to find pages that users might struggle to reach.
The importance and benefits of good internal linking for SEO
As I wrote, internal linking is one of the most important things in your SEO strategy. The absence of internal links can harm search engines’ ability to crawl and rank your pages.
There are several benefits to using internal links:
- Improving page ranking and distributing juice among internal pages on the site.
- Site orientation – internal links help users and Google crawl the site and find content faster and in a more user-friendly way.
- They contribute to the user experience and increase exposure to content by linking to additional relevant information.
- They allow promoting paid services or products relevant to the user landing on the page.
- They increase time spent on the site (if everything is done properly).
Important rules for building good links in the SEO process
The common components of an ideal internal link are:
- Maintaining a reasonable number of links on each page
- Adding links within the main content of the site
- Maintaining a relatively simple site structure so that every page on the site is accessible within 2-3 clicks from the homepage
- Internal links that match your target audience
- Ensuring there is a link to all important pages
- Creating logical internal links
- Using logical keywords (and ones that will help you rank)
- Writing anchor text in a way that allows the user to accurately understand the content of the linked page
Internal Links vs. External Links
External links have a much greater impact compared to internal links because they present your site as a good source of information, products, or services. Unlike external links, internal links point from one page on a site to another page on the same site. Both external links and internal links are very important for a site’s ranking in search engine results.
The "don'ts" of your internal linking structure
Internal links are an integral part of the SEO process, and knowing what to do with your internal links can be the difference between success and failure in SEO. When it comes to internal linking, there are several things you should not do:
- Don’t overload with links
- Don’t link to pages that have no internal links (as part of an endless loop).
- Don’t link anchor text to one page that has been used to rank another page
- Don’t insert forced content just so you can add the link there.
- Don’t create an overly complex site hierarchy
- Don’t use “rel=nofollow” on internal links – unless it’s a page you don’t want to boost.
- Don’t use phrases like “click here” or “read about this” or other boring words that do not provide descriptions for links.
Summary
Internal links are a crucial part of an SEO strategy and must be emphasized from the very beginning when building the site. From improving juice distribution to a noticeable increase in conversions, internal links can significantly improve your site’s SEO performance, allowing your site to gain high rankings in search engine results. Building a solid internal link architecture is the key to SEO success. Now that you have all the information, it’s time to implement it.
Article Author
Eliav Lankri, an SEO specialist for 15+ years, author of the blog “Eliavus SEO” and owner of GHA International SEO.
